Stone local Dan Bigham raced his way to 3rd at the Cholmondeley Castle round of the UK Elite Castle Triathlon Series.
Having made the step up from sprint distance age group racing in 2013 to Olympic distance elite this season; Dan has made steady progress through the British Elite Super Series with a 19th and 24th placed finish amongst the best pros in the UK. This was his first Castle Tri event he has competed in this season and with it being a non-draft event this played to Dan’s strengths on the bike. As such he was hoping for top five finish.
After recently working hard on his swim to improve his technique and time; his effort was rewarded with a strong swim coming out of the water in 10th. Despite the bike being his favourite and strongest leg of the three. His training exertions mid-week had clearly taken its toll with a slow opening lap but kicking on in the second lap took 3rd place with 5km left to go. Pulling out as much of a gap as possible ready for the run, he unfortunately couldn’t close the gap on leaders Carl Shaw (British Olympic distance champion) and Mark Threlfall (GB Elite athlete). Five minutes into the 10km run; friend and competitor Elliot Smales was nipping at his heels. The leaders were heading for a 32 minute 10km pace until Shaw pulled up with injury. Dan dug in keeping challengers at bay, minus Smales was the only competitor to pass him.
A 3rd place finish was more than deserved and sits well alongside his 10th place at the Commonwealth Games elite test event in Strathclyde Park a few months ago.
